


faultlines tremble underneath us

by TolkienGirl



Series: All That Glitters Gold Rush!AU: The Full Series [268]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Another vantage point, Gen, Medicinal Herbs, Mithrim is a safehaven but for how much longer, Native American Character(s), POV Outsider, Title from a Sleeping At Last Song, we've briefly introduced Miles Red Cloud the healer before
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25273441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TolkienGirl/pseuds/TolkienGirl
Summary: Miles Red Cloud knew where he was going, when he met Rumil. He changed his path thereafter, but it was his change. His choice.
Relationships: Rúmil of Tirion & Original Male Character(s)
Series: All That Glitters Gold Rush!AU: The Full Series [268]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1300685
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	faultlines tremble underneath us

Rumil had not rescued him. That had always been a point of importance, to him, because Rumil gathered people like the change of seasons gathered deer, wolves, and bears (albeit in different ways), promising them safety (albeit in different ways), if they ate and slept how and where the earth was kindest.

Miles Red Cloud knew where he was going, when he met Rumil. He changed his path thereafter, but it was his change. His choice.

Rumil knew that, too.

There were good years, and short winters, and friends made who lived and died in ordinary ways. This was closely bound with Miles’ purpose, with his interest in spending his own years alongside other people. 

Miles Red Cloud was a healer; he had been intended for that from his birth.

Even before the demon came, there were plenty of hurts to mend. Ashuwet, yampah, horsetail—he had collected some stock of these in his own travels, and added more during his time at Mithrim, trading for them in the nearby town and plucking them from tree and field.

None of these had saved Rumil’s life, in the end.

“As much my fault as yours,” Tabitha told him, knowing he was blaming himself. Knowing that he would have as soon put his healing hands around Ulfang’s throat as she would hers.

Tabitha would kill a man without apology, if she thought it right. Justified.

She was otherwise a plainspoken, gentle soul.

Miles did not speak much of Rumil’s death, because no one did. One or two of Ulfang’s closest friends had disappeared into the night after his body was thrown away, far enough from the water that it could be food for hungry beasts, but do no more harm otherwise. The rest—the rest of the men and women who had seemed friendly-like with him, and eager to unseat the upstart children of Feanor—kept quiet. Kept their heads low.

And then they all departed, one after the other after the other. 

Men and women were that way, Miles knew. You made mistakes, and, given the chance, you unmade what ones you could.

As the season changed again, he braided bundles of some herbs; soaked others in hot water or clear liquor. Rumil was dead, and buried, and there was no way of knowing whether he would have recovered from one demon’s poison, if another’s had not barred the door of life to him forever.

No one spoke of Rumil’s death, now, because Feanor’s oldest son had come back. The boy was like a second sun. Miles had known that the moment he arrived, because Miles had never needed Mithrim like the others did. He could afford to stand away, to watch it move.

For Maedhros, Mithrim moved.

Someday, the gathering of people will cease, and this spot of land will be barren. It will be, for the sleeping bear, a cave with the roof fallen in. For the deer, a land of shorn and wind-burnt grass. It will not be a place for living or resting.

It is important to know that.


End file.
